Rate Miami (Coral Gables: mover, violent crime, house)

[pgm123]

Time to pretend to be a spambot.

PLEASE RATE MIAMI: America's Favorite Cities Survey 2012 | Travel + Leisure

Is that how those things work? Anyway, Travel and Leisure Magazine has its annual America's Favorite Cities poll right now. It's fun to compare the cities, but the ratings are often a joke. People tend to take places they like and give a bunch of good ratings (in everything) and poor ratings in everything for the cities they don't like. As a result, Miami did pretty poorly. Now, I'll admit there are things about Miami that are pretty poor (friendliness, for example), but Miami even did poorly in Coffee and Ethnic Food (well mediocre). I'm hoping if enough smart people take this poll, the results will be more accurate. So, if you feel capable of being objective and honest (whatever that means) and you're kind of bored, give it a shot.

For a discussion, though, what do you think Miami is particularly underrated/overrated in?

[2ForTheSea]

I took the quiz then looked at last year's results. It appears as if Miami is loud, dirty, pretty, stupid, uncultured and expensive according to the results by both visitors and residents.
Also, the poor driving ability is not because of chugging too many microbrews.

Obviously, people see Miami as a very specific type of place to visit and it's too bad people cannot see beyond the shiny exterior.

I think Miami is underrated as a place to bring a family. There's loads of stuff for families to do.

[2ForTheSea]

Originally Posted by pgm123

, but Miami even did poorly in Coffee and Ethnic Food (well mediocre).

Ethnic food I don't get because pretty much every food is ethnic unless you're going to a pemmican and maize restaurant.
But coffee, yeah, not so great. I understand Cuban coffee is pretty common, but there isn't a real coffee culture like there is in a lot of more northern cities.

[pgm123]

It separates coffee and cafes. To me, Miami fairs poorly in cafes, with the exceptions of Eternity, Panther and Alaska. On coffee, however, it is really good. You can get a shot of good Cuban coffee pretty much anywhere. It doesn't have a cafe culture, which is a shame. That's something I miss about being up north. But what I don't miss about being up north is having to go to Starbucks because I can't find a shot of espresso when I have cravings.

[john-staten island]

Miami has the best of what could attract people to choose to live downtown. The new ballpark, waterfront, are great assets.Sadly the risk of violent crime is only one wrong turn from realty. I spent two different nights attending Marlin games last week. The stadium was beautiful, leaving the ballpark at 11pm was a bit dicey. The traffic for a return trip to Boca was was a mess until clearing the city limits. I would compare the area around the ballpark to the South Bronx, except NY has many more police for big events from what I experienced. I've toyed with moving to Coral Gables, Brickell from Boca but my gut feeling tells me no. South Florida needs to address the transit system if they ever want to advance to a
big city that's convenient to get around in. Major crime concerns me the most about the future of Miami, what is so complicated about fixing it?

[pgm123]

Crime is a concern. Another problem for me is the inadequacy of public transportation. The MetroMover is nice once you're downtown (for no other reason that it's free), but getting there can be a pain. For a city that was built because of the railroad, it does lack a good train system.

[tallrick]

Everything about Miami today is overrated. The best places are away from the city and unaffordable for the median income. Downtown is a dump full of sleazy characters, both the poor and the foreign capital funnels.

[MiamiRob]

Originally Posted by tallrick

Everything about Miami today is overrated. The best places are away from the city and unaffordable for the median income. Downtown is a dump full of sleazy characters, both the poor and the foreign capital funnels.

Spoken like the true hater of Miami who wishes Miami were like it was in the 1950s.

[UnInspired]

I love it here. But there is definitely a lack of variety of ethnic food. 95% of the ethnic restaurants are Latin/Peruvian. There are very few Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, etc.
And definitely a lack of viable public transportation.
That said, it's a small price to pay to live here and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

And, I'm curious why everyone always mentions crime as being such an issue. Other than nuissance crimes (pickpocket, car break-ins, scams, etc.), how often do you hear about RANDOM acts of violence (other than the face-eating incident !!)? I'm not talking about couples who are fighting/domestic violence, etc. I'm talking about the odds of getting killed / assaulted by a total stranger/s; getting pulled into a dark alley/park and raped; or someone breaking into your house and doing something violent.

When I think of safety, I think of whether or not I'm afraid to walk down the street or whether I'm afraid to go to sleep at night. I don't see that being an issue here. Do folks really think Miami is that unsafe? Keep in mind, I'm jaded coming from Philadelphia where the murder rate is 300+/year and there are 'flash mobs' causing havoc - where it's intimidating to walk down the street. So I'm curious when people talk about crime, are they talking about violent crime/fearing for their safety?

[Surfside__]

Originally Posted by john-staten island

Miami has the best of what could attract people to choose to live downtown. The new ballpark, waterfront, are great assets.Sadly the risk of violent crime is only one wrong turn from realty. I spent two different nights attending Marlin games last week. The stadium was beautiful, leaving the ballpark at 11pm was a bit dicey. The traffic for a return trip to Boca was was a mess until clearing the city limits. I would compare the area around the ballpark to the South Bronx, except NY has many more police for big events from what I experienced. I've toyed with moving to Coral Gables, Brickell from Boca but my gut feeling tells me no. South Florida needs to address the transit system if they ever want to advance to a
big city that's convenient to get around in. Major crime concerns me the most about the future of Miami, what is so complicated about fixing it?

Very well said! The stadium is fantastic, but look it it through google maps through sky view, and look at the poor areas it is surrounded by! It is real disappointing to say the least to have such a beautiful stadium, and professional team situated around the ghetto! That was a major turn off for me, if it was me, I would have built the stadium somewhere near AA Arena or somewhere safer at least I guess they were thinking they can get people from palm beach county/broward/miami dade it's easy access, but the location is terrible, same thing with dolphin stadium in Miami gardens another ghetto I would not be in at night!! Bad location.

I see what you are saying with the transit system and also the major crime. I've addressed that before on this forum that it needs to be gentrified and all poor areas need to be turned into middle/upper class suburbs, it's really not that difficult, and creating jobs isn't rocket science either, just look how any other suburb in America does it. The poor need to be driven out, I'm not trying to sound harsh but that is the truth, they are giving the city a bad rep big time. The ghettos need to be suburbanized plain and simple if MIA plans on becoming a better place for the future, and people need to stop feeling sorry for poor people that cannot afford to live their plain and simple. Gentrification and suburbanization is the key to turning the ugly neighborhoods of MIA around.